The present invention relates generally to an electrical connector and, more particularly, to a shell-less insulative connector member which may optionally be provided with a grounding shell bracket.
There are basically two different types of electrical connectors. In one type of connector, a metal shell surrounds an insulative insert in which the contacts of the connector are mounted. In the other type of connector, the entire body of the connector is formed of an insulative material. There is no metal shell surrounding the body of the connector. Such connectors are often referred to as being shell-less connectors or all-plastic connectors. There is presently available on the market a variety of connectors sometimes referred to as being D-subminiature connectors in which the plug connector half has a keystone shaped forward polarization portion which engages within a matching keystone shaped recess in the mating connector half. Such connectors are available in both the shell and shell-less forms, and the plug connector half of one of such connectors is intermateable with the receptacle half of the other type of connector, and vice versa.
The shell-less or all-plastic connectors have the advantage of being of lower cost than the metal shell connectors. However, because such connectors do not embody a metal shell, they are not capable of being grounded which may be necessary for some applications.
It would therefore be desirable to provide for a shell-less connector member a grounding shell bracket which will allow the connector member to be interengaged with a mating standard metal shell connector member with a grounding connector therebetween, yet when the bracket is removed, the shell-less connector member may still interengage with its mating shell-less connector member. It is the object of the present invention to provide a shell-less connector member with an optional grounding shell bracket which will allow mating with the two different types of connector members as described hereinabove.